High-Level Perceptual Influences on Color Appearance

The stable perception of surface colors in variable viewing conditions is important for information about surface color to help in object identification. This is a difficult computational problem, yet people are good at judging the colors of objects and materials under changing lighting conditions. Mechanisms at different levels of visual information processing work together to achieve this color constancy. Much is known about the sensory mechanisms of color constancy, whereas the role of higher-level mechanisms is far less understood. This chapter focuses on the influence of previous experience, specifically memory colors, on color appearance and color constancy. Previously used methodologies are discussed, in particular whether they are capable of discerning between semantic and visual effects in memory color. The chapter presents recent work showing that prior experience can affect the color appearance of natural objects. This could provide an additional, high-level cue for achieving color constancy.